Standing alongside the other wives, listening to the words that had become, sadly, all too familiar over the last few years, Kim Brown could not help but let her mind wander for a moment. The dark clothes, sombre expressions, presence of the military brass………..no funeral was ever easy, but this one was, Kim thought, going to be more difficult than most. This time, they were here to add another picture to the wall in the TOC. They were here to farewell a member of Alpha Team.
Kim let her mind wander for a few moments more. This last mission, this mission that had lead to them being here, had started off like most others. The men of Alpha Team and their families had been gathered at the Blane's home for a BBQ. Good food and good company had been the order of the afternoon, until that familiar ring had sounded, summoning the team to action. As always, Kim had embraced Bob closely, accepted his wedding ring from him for safekeeping and told him to stay safe. It was a silly thing to say, she knew, but it was something she had always said to him, and Bob had told her that he liked it – it reminded him of what he had to come back to.
Ten days passed, but Kim and the other wives weren't concerned. They knew that with the work their husbands did, the missions could sometimes take days, but it was nothing to worry about. Then, on a fine afternoon, as Kim was nursing Teddy and watching Serena play in the front yard, the black car feared by every military wife turned into the street. She saw it arrive at its destination, and her stomach sunk. No, she thought to herself, not him. It couldn't be true, it just couldn't……..
The sudden silence jolted Kim back to reality. Looking up, she could see her husband, in his dress uniform, standing guard over the coffin with the other men from his team. When he had returned from this mission, though he didn't say anything, she could see in his eyes how much this particular death had affected him. In the front row of seats, she could see the bowed head of the woman who was burying a beloved husband, and the tear streaked faces of the children who were saying goodbye to their beloved daddy. As the tears begun to fall down her cheeks, Kim struggled to comprehend why they were here. It didn't seem fair, that today they were here to bury yet another soldier. This time it was someone whom Kim had come to respect and care for like a brother. Today, Lissy and Jen were saying goodbye to their daddy, and Tiffy was burying her husband. Today, the men and women of the unit were burying Master Sergeant Mack Gerhardt.